Words by Ciaran Coyle
Arsenal have announced pre-tax losses of £47.8 million for the year ending May 2020, with the club citing the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on finances, despite increase in commercial and match day revenue.
Whilst the clubs strategic report showed commercial revenues had increased by 28.3 percent from last year’s figures, with the announcement of their new partnership with Adidas coming into effect in July 2019, the Gunners reported substantial losses in broadcast revenue with a decrease of £64.2 million from the last financial year.
Arsenal’s early exit from the Uefa Europa League at the Round of 32 stages was used as an explanation as to why they had seen a drop in broadcast revenue from last year’s figures, with a deferral of broadcast revenue amounting to £32 million being made into next year’s report also cited.
The North London club also reported having to pay out £10.4 million in exceptional costs which related to the payments made to Unai Emery and his coaching staff, who left the club in November 2019, and Mikel Arteta and his staff, who replaced the outgoing Arsenal boss.
Arsenal’s spending on the likes of Nicolas Pepe and David Luiz during that period totalled to £182.2 million, with the club’s selling of Alex Iwobi and Krystian Bielik only managing to generate £60 million to offset the amount spent on acquisitions. However, the club were able to make £17 million in savings during the period which was directly impacted by the majority of first-team players agreeing to take a pay cut due to the financial impacts of the Pandemic.
